In The News

www.physorg.com March 3rd ... the Earth Institute at Columbia University has posted evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica. These vents spew volcanically heated seawater from the underwater mountain ranges where lava erupts and new crust forms (mid ocean ridges). Chemicals dissolved in the vents help sustain a complex web of organisms (Geophysical Research Letters).

George Howard, on his web site www.cosmictusk.com has posted this 2007 article as it appears to tie in with the latest offering from Bill Napier. 'The case for significant numbers of extraterrestrial impacts through the late Holocene' by Mike Baillie (a speaker at several SIS meetings and events). It can be downloaded in pdf format from the web site - see menu on LH side.

Biblical Archaeological Review (www.bib-arch.org ) March/April issue, 2010 ... has an article on the invention of the alphabet by Orly Goldwasser. He begins by outlining the close association of Asiatics from Syria-Palestine with Egypt - from the Old Kingdom through to the Hyksos era. Most of the time it was peaceful and during the Middle Kingdom large numbers of Asiatics were domiciled in Egypt, and many became Egyptianised.

http://www.tcpalm.com March 4th ... a local newspaper with a story about human bones found in association with extinct Pleistocene animals - in Florida. Excavations are being organised to unearth more information but provisionally they are assumed to date shortly before the YD boundary event. The discovery was made some 80 years ago during the digging out of a canal. It hit national newspapers at the time but scientists ignored it as they did not believe humans coexisted with mammoths and other beasts of the Pleistocene fauna.

www.physorg.com March 4th ... the asteroid impact at the K/T boundary left a clear band between light coloured Cretaceous sediments and dark coloured Palaeocene sediments (a picture of the geology is provided online), recovered from the sea floor off South America. The abrupt shift in colour reflects an instantaneous drop in ocean biological productivity. There is also an online video (including an audio interview and animated graph) of the asteroid impact, with Dr Joanna Morgan of Imperial College explaining the science.

www.physorg.com March 4th ... a study by Raffaele Ferrari and two students (published by Geophysical Research Letters) has shown that the role of hurricanes has been over-estimated simply because previous studies have not taken into account the seasons. Most of the heat from warm water that hurricanes mix deep into the oceans during the summer and autumn periods is returned to the atmosphere during winter. This indicates that 'warm anomalies' do not affect long term ocean temperature.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com March 4th ... Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world at 29,000 feet, so it is generally believed. However, when the equatorial bulge is taken into account, the earth being oblate as it spins, flattened at the pole and bulging at the equator, it seems that Mount Chinborozo in the Andes, at only 20,000 feet, situated on that bulge, is the highest point on the planet. A bit of random and completely useless information but there you are.

www.dailygalaxy.com March 4th ... the Toba super volcano appears to have been overhyped. It is said to have blown around 74,000 years ago and was responsible for a 1000 year cooling episode - but quite how these things are measured from so long ago must leave root for alternative explanations. At one point scientists were saying that humans became almost extinct at this time - until somebody pointed out that Neanderthals appear to have thrived and the Hobbit persisted in fairly close proximity to the Toba eruption.

http://cosmictusk.com ... the BBC reported from the 'lunar and Planetary Conference' in Texas by saying, 'a large space rock may have exploded over Antarctica thousands of years ago, showering a large area with debris. The evidence comes from tiny meteoritic particles and a layer of extraterrestrial dust found in Antarctic ice cores. The event would have been similar to the 1908 Tunguska event' they said. Looks like another one - they are coming thick and fast.

http://newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il??p=2654 professor Gershon Galil of the Dept of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa has identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as 'Neta'im' which is mentioned in Chronicles. It was a centre of pottery manufacture in the service of the king and interestingly was located near the border with Philistia.